ADL adds to literature on Kevin MacDonald

That image, which appears to have been "borrowed" from The Journal, is now at the top of the Anti-Defamation League's homepage. (I wanted to put a screen grab up but, as usual, Blogger had other ideas.) Accompanying the image is a long-awaited report, published today, by the ADL that is short, uncontroversial and includes no new information that I could find.

"Kevin MacDonald is someone who is hailed among the bigots not just for his beliefs about Jews, but because of his ability to lend to his anti-Semitism a scholarly veneer," said Dr. Kevin O'Grady, ADL Orange County Regional Director. "Because he is a tenured professor who couches his views as a form of academic inquiry, he defies the mold of more traditional anti-Semites like jackbooted neo-Nazis or robe-wearing Klansmen."

MacDonald is a celebrated figure in the world of white supremacy because his views about Jews -- many of which promote classical anti-Semitic conspiracy theories -- are given added legitimacy by his ability to present them in a scholarly guise, according to ADL. The League has added MacDonald to its definitive online guide to extremist groups and individuals in the United States, Extremism in America.

ADL says that MacDonald has evolved from a writer of books to a blogger and prolific contributor to anti-Semitic publications both in print and online.

A lot more info about MacDonald, whom I profiled for The Jewish Journal two weeks ago, can be found in a much more lengthy bio page the ADL created, which includes an overview of the man, his ideology and affiliations and his own words:

“[H]atred toward all things European is normative among a great many strongly identified Jews.”

“Can the Jewish Model Help the West Survive?”

Jack London Literary Prize acceptance speech, October 31, 2004

Times blogger: MacDonald 'blends creepiness, crackpottery and a surprising forthrightness'

Tim Cavanaugh, the administrator of the Times' Opinion L.A. blog who I mentioned in my profile of Luke Ford, complimented the tone of my article about Kevin MacDonald ("perfectly dry") and from it made a familiar observation of Cal State Long Beach's infamous academic:

MacDonald himself, who blends creepiness, crackpottery and a surprising forthrightness into a weird form of amiability that I can sort of respect. I hate to use such a hoary cliché, but he's a quintessentially American type of oddball, the kind you don't want to listen to because he occasionally makes you say "Hm, he's got a point."

In case you don't recall, MacDonald's point is that Jews are too smart and far too well organized for his people's good.

I agree with Cavanaugh to a point; as I wrote in the article, MacDonald's "affable" and "seems every bit a slice of Midwest Americana." And some of his arguments are uncontroversial

Yes, Jews have been encouraged to marry within the faith, to promote their own culture and to support Jewish causes and charities. There's probably some value in his theory that Judaism serves a "group evolutionary" purpose.

But the Nazis were a mirror image of Jewry that punished the Other for their success in science and the arts and business? And the Talmud was not for religious purposes but instead to weed out the dim witted? Hmm ... I don't think he has a point.

Martin Fiebert -- a fellow psych professor at The Beach who warned MacDonald in 1993 that his first book may find a "treasured place in the bookcases of neo-Nazis along with 'Mein Kampf' and the 'Protocols of Zion'" -- told me that he at first found MacDonald's writings on Jews to be an "intellectual excercise." He disagreed with MacDonald's argument but not so much with his desire to make it.

That changed for Fiebert when MacDonald decided to serve as an expert witness for Holocaust denier David Irving in a lawsuit against Jewish historian Deborah Lipstadt.

Monday morning editor

In a letter to the editor this week, Paula Van Gelder, like Shoded Yam, argued that The Jewish Journal was the wrong place to report on the "ridiculous ramblings" of Kevin MacDonald. She went on to make a strange comparison that, if it were appreciated, would mean few articles about the environment should ever be written again.

This editorial decision makes about as much sense as The Journal's recent publication of a thick "green" issue, thereby destroying even more trees than usual in order to decry the destruction of our environment.

'Zionist bigots like you, Mr. Greenberg'

Most of the e-mail I have received about my profile of Kevin MacDonald, the Cal State Long Beach professor whose books on Jews have been compared to 'Mein Kampf," has been tame and complimentary, most of all from MacDonald, who wrote me Thursday night:

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised. I was really worried about a hatchet job and this definitely was not that. There were a few things that I would rephrase or provide a somewhat different context, but I suppose that's what all interviewees say.

His chief adversary, Jeff Blutinger, told me the response has been "overwhelmingly positive."

Thanks for making his gobbledy gook intelligible through your use of clear language.

But Anti-Zionist Wayne, similar to this "analysis" by John de Nugent, shared a different perspective in an e-mail I just received. He begins by thanking me for notifying him about MacDonald, whose books he now intends to buy. Wayne then lambastes me for my alleged desire to curb freedom of speech (nowhere in the article did I suggest this) and informs me that "this IS AMERICA . . . IT'S NOT FACIST ISRAEL (a nation OF Jews, BY Jews, FOR Jews) !"

He concludes with this thoughtful observation:

The truth is that the greatest danger that rascist Jews (i.e, Zionists) fear is NOT the anti-semitic terrorism from non-Jews, but the assimilation ("self-destruction") of the Diaspora Jews into "other" (impure) multi-ethnic cultures, LIKE IN MELTING POT AMERICA!!!!

The Aryan Neo-Nazis fear and hate MELTING POT America!
The WASPs (David Dukes) fear and hate MELTING POT America!
The Louis Farahkan Blacks fear and hate MELTING POT America!
The Zionist Jews fear and hate MELTING POT America!

I believe that ALL ethnic groups are possessed with RACIST factions that want to preserve their pedigree clan! If we must NEVER FORGET the evils and horrors of bigotry and racism, then we have to learn the attributes (psychological markers) of these bigoted factions, no matter what ethnic group they belong to!!

Louis Farrakhan can NOT use the horrors of the history of SLAVERY as an excuse, or justification, for tolerating Black bigotry! Neither can Zionist Jews be permitted to use the HOLOCAUST as an excuse or justification for tolerating Zionist (Israeli) bigotry!!

I suspect that that's the message Professor Kevin MacDonald wants to teach his students!

But I'm quite sure that he'll learn that you CAN NOT criticize the Jewish Community, by documenting its flaws, without facing professional assassination by Zionist bigots . . .umm, like you Mr Greenberg!!!

Coincidentally, this rant was sent to thecreator@thegodblog.org, the account I use for this blog, on which it is very apparent that I'm a practicing Christian who believes in Zionism, though not without criticism, and has a Jewish last name.

An old colleague of mine had a hilarious template letter for replying to such e-mails. It began "Dear Sir and/or Madam," thanked the author for "using fairly grammatically correct language and removing most of the typos" and offered to do better in the future "so you'll be able to spend your days contributing productively to society, rather than devoting time and effort to reminding me of what a miserable excuse for a person I am." Other parts of the letter, which was never sent out but was always good for a laugh, are not repeatable here.

But back to Wayne's e-mail: Notice the difference his insights into my flaws and those shared with me after I wrote an article about Islamopobia for the LA Daily News last year. (Hint: that guy told me I was a sucker for Islamofascists and said, "While you're waiting in line with your prayer rug on the way to the ovens, I'll continue to shine a light on the hate speech that Imams are spewing in Mosque's.")

Long Beach professor justifies anti-Semitism

I do not think Jews are living in 1938 Germany. But it really has seemed lately liked I've transitioned to the anti-Semitism beat. Besides posting several items on the topic during the past few days, I spent last night at UC Irvine, listening to a speech from Norman Finkelstein, who has certainly been called an anti-Semite, and that followed two weeks of researching and writing a profile of Kevin MacDonald, a psychology professor at Cal State Long Beach whose books have been compared to "Mein Kampf."

In the above video, which is 41 minutes long, MacDonald appears on the TV program "Current Issues," hosted by Palestinian American Hesham Tillawi. The focus of their conversation is the negative influence and clannish behavior of Jews. At the 17-minute mark, MacDonald describes his opinions, detailed in a three-volume series and subsequent essays that can be found at kevinmacdonald.net, as "rational" anti-Semitism.

MacDonald once served as an expert witness for Holocaust-denier David Irving, and many of his theories of Judaism as a "group evolutionary strategy" are controversial. The least palatable are that Judaism has a built in eugenics program -- the study of Talmud, which, he claims, stemmed the reproduction of dumber members of the Tribe -- and that anti-Semitism, even Nazism, were gentile responses to Jewish success.

He's been on the faculty of Cal State Long Beach 23 years now, having achieved full tenure in 1994. But the university is under increasing pressure from some of MacDonald's colleagues and outside organizations to denounce his writings, which, obviously, have very little to do with child psychology and, to his credit, have been kept out of the classroom.

Under the headline, "The Professor Anti-Semites Love," MacDonald carries this week's cover for The Jewish Journal. It's a long profile -- from his childhood in Oshkosh to the origins of his research to the contents of his books and the battle against him -- so I'll just mention now the biggest problem MacDonald has had: his anti-Semitic admirers.

As a warning, there will be some very vulgar language from someone who would like to see the fulfillment of the Final Solution:

In the second of two recent interviews, MacDonald said he is not a fan of anti-Semitism. But he also described his opinions on a Palestinian American TV news program in 2005 as "rational anti-Semitism" and has joked that being branded a Jew hater was a "badge of honor," the knee-jerk reaction of a scared Jewish establishment.

The chief concern over MacDonald's writings about Jews is directed at his fan base: white supremacists like Stormfront.org and Vanguard News Network -- whose motto is "No Jews. Just Right." The members of these online communities have become his loudest defenders, often in language that is as offensive as possible.

"So the goddam Kikes are getting their way yet again, putting the thumbscrews to a White scholar whose ass they are not worthy to lick.... At least this oppression proves that Prof. MacDonald's great work is hitting the scum hard," a Vanguard commenter wrote in February below a republished story about MacDonald from CSULB's student paper.

"How much more of this humiliation is our race going to take? How long before this motherf---ing plague of repulsive, hook-snouted ticks is given a real Zyklon fumigation, as opposed to the fairy tale one?"

MacDonald repudiated such rhetoric as "crazy stuff" but said he supports the ideology behind it.

"White people have legitimate ethnic interests. To the extent that that is all they believe, then we are on the same page," he said. "I don't like to use words like white supremacists. You could say that Koreans in Korea are Korean supremacists if they want to maintain their culture. It is kind of a loaded word; it is a politically charged word of the left, basically, to pathologize any sense of having an ethnicity and culture by people like me. I reject that."

"I certainly reject the tactics and the rhetoric of these people. It's very crude," MacDonald added. "But to the extent that David Duke is trying to advance a white ethnic interest and so on, I don't have any problem with that."

I'll post later about the basis for MacDonald's research, which rests on an assumption of "Jewish Genius."